CARMACKS — The following happened in a three-minute span:

Chris Spoor was the first solo kayaker to arrive at the Carmacks checkpoint of the 2011 Yukon River Quest, at 9:18 a.m.

The Victoria, B.C., paddler was followed by Shaun Thrower of England, who came in at 9:20.

Thrower rolled over and fell into the water upon landing.

At 9:21, Thrower's partner, Sharon Colley, became the first solo female kayaker in.

Colley's legs wobbled long after she left the dock, wobbled like she'd already spent a few days in Dawson City celebrating.

Obviously any celebrations are off a ways, but that didn't stop Colley from smiling after stopping at the mandatory seven-hour checkpoint.

"I quite enjoyed it, apart from the lake,” she said of Lake Laberge. "The lake was horrible. Coming through the night was actually quite nice, kept myself amused.”

How are your hands and legs?

She held up her shaking hands, sogged and blistered. Then she staggered back a step.

"My legs have got a mind of their own and want to walk backwards. My shoulders, my arms feel OK. My hands are a bit blistered, weathered,” she said, adding with a laugh that the seven-hour layover isn't long enough.

Without saying the words, Spoor agreed, if only through his expression, while his father cooked soup for him at the Coal Mine Campsite on a make-shift stove.

"It takes forever. There's so many loops before Carmacks. Every loop you think is the one that leads to Carmacks and it's not,” Spoor said.

He and Thrower got acquainted up river a ways when Thrower flipped for the first time.

"I had to tow him for a little bit, maybe two or three minutes,” Spoor said. "Just a little bit of interval training that I didn't need.”

And Spoor knows what he does need.

He quit last year's River Quest at Carmacks.

Though tired, his face nearly expressionless, he's determined not to have history repeat itself.

After that disappointment, he's clearly done some self-reflection.

"In a race you really only race against yourself; you can't really race against other people,” Spoor said.

"You just got to do it. You got to really want to make it to Dawson. I quit last year and it was a terrible feeling so it's not going to happen again.

"I'm over that, and I made adjustments in this race that would lead to me feeling better here and I feel great.”

For both Spoor and Colley the schedule from when they arrived in Carmacks to when they leave for Kirkman Creek, the next mandatory stop, is the same, as it is the same with all the paddlers.

Shower. Eat. Sleep. Wake up and will yourself back into the boat.

"I don't think I want to get back in the boat,” Colley laughed. "After a half an hour (of paddling) I'll be fine.”

Once asked what she'll think about during the upcoming legs, she replied:

"I'm thinking about having a beer in Dawson.”

Cheers.